Companies (March 2007)

 

Duke closes on acquisition of Bremner

INDIANAPOLIS-BASED FIRMS CLOSE ON DEAL TO CREATE MED REAL ESTATE UNIT

 

By John Mugford

 

Duke Realty Corp. (NYSE: DRE) recently finalized its acquisition of Bremner Healthcare Real Estate. Bremner now operates as Bremner-Duke Healthcare Real Estate.

Duke also announced that it was close to closing the acquisition of healthcare assets that it held in a joint venture with Bremner. Those nine facilities have a total of 784,000 square feet.

Bremner has focused on healthcare projects for about two decades, developing about $1 billion in medical office buildings (MOBs), specialty hospitals and other medical facilities. Prior to being acquired by Duke, Bremner also managed more than 3.5 million square feet of healthcare facilities.

Officials have not revealed the price of the transaction, which is one of several that Duke entered in the past year or so. The real estate investment trust (REIT) also acquired a portfolio of 2.9 million square feet of office and light industrial buildings in metro Washington, D.C., for $865.2 million; and it acquired a 5.1 million square foot portfolio of industrial properties in and near Savannah, Ga., for $196.2 million.

Duke also developed about $1 billion worth of properties in 2006, with about 8 percent of that total being medical projects.

Duke and Bremner, both based in Indianapolis, initially teamed up for the development of joint venture-owned healthcare facilities. According to company officials, the Bremner team will be retained and will continue to look for development opportunities throughout the country.

For the Record

Detroit-based Albert Kahn Associates Inc. (AKA) has been selected as the architect of record by Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare (EMHC) for a new integrated hospital campus in Elmhurst, Ill. AKA will provide full architectural, interior and landscape design services while working in partnership with Pratt Design Studio Ltd. of Chicago. The hospital complex is to be constructed on a 27-acre site adjacent to Elmhurst’s current Memorial Center for Health. The hospital complex is planned for a 27-acre site adjacent to Elmhurst’s current Memorial Center for health. Completion is scheduled for 2010… Real estate services firm J.H. Berry & Gilbert Inc. of Birmingham, Ala., is partnering with Chicago-based Lillibridge Healthcare Services to lease medical office space at Medical Center East Regional Care Center Building 46 in Birmingham. Building 46 is a five-story, 227,237 square foot facility with more than 130,000 square feet of space available. It sits in a larger medical complex, Medical Center East Regional Care Center, which has three buildings and a total of 437,540 square feet. Lillibridge acquired the complex in October 2006. Leasing rates for MCE Building 46 will be $22.75 per square foot, according to J.H. Berry & Gilbert. …University Medical Center at Princeton (UMCP) is in the process of planning for a 269-bed replacement facility. UMPC recently selected the New York office of Turner Construction Co. to provide general contracting services for the project, which still must gain the approval of Plainsboro Township. Plans call for 10 surgical suites, full-service diagnostics, cardiac labs, radiation oncology with linear accelerators and related ancillary and support space. The timeline is pending township approval… Dallas-based The Cirrus Group recently started construction on Mountain West Medical Center, a 50,000 square foot hospital in Casper, Wyo. The project also entails the development of a 29,000 square foot medical office building (MOB) adjacent to the hospital. Tenants in the MOB will include Central Wyoming Neurosurgery LLC and Casper Medical Center LLC, a subsidiary of Chicago-based National Surgical Hospital Inc.… Peoria, Ariz.-based The Plaza Companies recently announced that it racked up leasing activity totaling about 66,000 square feet and $7 million in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2006. The firm is a developer, owner and manager of medical and research office buildings and senior housing communities in Maricopa County and others… Chicago-based Cambridge Realty Capital Cos. announced that it has provided a $10.8 million FHA-insured first mortgage loan to refinance Westmont Convalescent Center, a 215-bed skilled nursing home facility in Westmont, Ill. The fully amortized, 35-year term loan was underwritten by Cambridge Realty Capital Ltd. of Illinois. The loan utilized HUD Section 232 pursuant to Section 223(f) program. The interest rate was not disclosed… Salt Lake City-based Big-D Construction has been awarded a $9.3 million contract to build the Nevada Orthopedics Medical Office Building in Henderson, Nev…. McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. of Newport Beach, Calif., began construction in recent months on the new $65 million, 148,861 square foot Centennial Complex at Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, Calif.  The project is the first academic facility to be built at Loma Linda University in more than 20 years.  The project is McCarthy’s seventh for Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center (LLUAHSC). The project is scheduled for completion in February 2009. The architect is Cannon Design of Los Angeles… A new diagnostic imaging center designed by New York-based Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA) was recently completed for the North Shore-Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System in Lake Success, N.Y. The 15,000 square foot facility contains the latest technology and is completely digital. The facility’s layout is organized with two different circulation zones – one for patients and one for staff… University of California – San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center in recent weeks announced that it was entering exclusive negotiations with San Francisco-based Anshen + Allen to design its proposed $1.3 billion Mission Bay hospital complex, according to the medical center’s Web site. Anshen + Allen would design the first phase of UCSF’s planned women’s, children’s and cancer hospital complex in the Mission Bay section of the city. Anshen + Allen would work with William McDonough + Partners, another architectural firm known for its “green” designs, and two structural engineering firms, Rutherford & Chekene and ARUP. The proposed medical center, which still requires approvals from the University of California Regents, is targeted for completion by 2014. Construction is expected to start by 2011. q